Spanish Armada

The Spanish Armada was an attempted Habsburg Spanish invasion of England in 1588 which resulted in a disastrous defeat caused by poor leadership, the English fleet's use of fireships, and unfavorable weather conditions. The defeat of the Spanish Armada saved Protestant England from a Catholic reconquest masterminded by the Pope himself, and it was hailed as a victory by Protestant Europe over the Catholic menace.

Background
In 1588, Pope Sixtus V allowed King Philip II of Spain to collect crusade taxes and granted his men indulgences, giving his blessing for a Catholic invasion of Protestant England. On 28 May 1588, a fleet of 130 Spanish Navy ships, 8,000 sailors, and 18,000 soldiers set sail from Lisbon towards the English Channel, where it would join forces with the Spanish armies in the Habsburg Netherlands for a full-scale invasion of England. In the Low Countries, they were to be joined by an additional 30,000 Spanish troops. King Philip gave command of the fleet to the Duke of Medina Sidonia, an incompetent admiral who frequently asked to be dismissed, but was refused due to King Philip's need for a man of high status to lead the invasion fleet. The English responded by assembling a makeshift fleet of 34 warships and 163 armed merchant vessels, and they set sail from Plymouth, Devon to attack the Armada as it entered the channel.

First actions
In July 1588, the English admirals Lord Howard of Effingham and Francis Drake planned to attack the massive Armada in the English Channel, but they faced inland winds and were forced to wait, bowling as they awaited better weather. The Spanish had the opportunity to attack the English fleet at Plymouth harbor, but King Philip had ordered the Spanish fleet not to engage the English unless it was absolutely necessary; the Armada instead sailed on to Calais as planned. On 20 July, the English sailed out of Plymouth Sound to attack the Spanish fleet, splitting their forces. The two squadrons of the 55-strong English fleet zig-zagged with the wind to attack the 120-strong Spanish fleet (with 350 soldiers on each ship), which had formed a prearranged, crescent-shaped battle formation. The English launched a ferocious two-pronged attack on the Armada, with Drake commanding an 11-strong squadron from Revenge and Howard leading the bulk of the fleet from Ark Royal. Because the Spanish would have the advantage in close-quarter fighting, the more maneuverable English ships kept beyond grappling range and bombarded the Spanish ships from a distance. The Spanish ships Rosario and San Salvador had to be abandoned after colliding, and, at nightfall, Drake had the ships looted, stealing gunpowder and gold.

On 23 July, the two fleets met again off Portland, and the Armada decided to retreat to Calais as Martin Frobisher and Drake attacked them. On 27 July, the Armada anchored off Calais, where Parma's army, reduced by disease to 16,000, was expected to be waiting. However, Parma was forced to wait for six days as he prepared his army to move again, and Medina Sidonia's fleet was blockaded by a fleet of 30 Dutch flyboats under Justinus van Nassau. The Spanish had no deep-water port in which they could find shelter, and they did not divert any of their vital ships to fight off the Dutch blockade, leaving themselves vulnerable. At midnight on 28 July, the English set alight eight fireships and sent them into the Spanish fleet. The Spanish destroyed two of them, but the remainder surged into the Spanish fleet, forcing them to cut their cables and break their crescent formation. No Spanish ships were burnt, but their formation was broken and one ship was grounded, leaving them in a state of confusion.

Battle of Gravelines
On 7 August, Drake and Howard planned their main attack on the Spanish Armada off Gravelines. The next morning, following a fireship attack the night before, Howard and his ships looted the Spanish ship which had run aground, costing them valuable time. Drake decided to lead the rest of the fleet to attack the Spanish fleet, and Medina Sidonia held back the English fleet for an hour, giving the rest of the Armada time to reform. However, Howard returned with his fleet and joined in the attack. 50 Spanish ships formed their own defensive crescent, and Drake sailed on to attack it. Drake had his ships sail into the Spanish formation, and the ships were so close that the musketeers from both sides could fire at each other. The English were able to hit the Armada with several shots, doing terrible damage to their ships and crews. The Spanish suffered heavy casualties at close range; they had intended to board the English ships rather than fire on them, and they used very little of their ammunition as the English ships pounded them. After eight hours of intense fighting, the English fleet ran low on ammunition; at 4:00 PM, the English pulled back. The Spanish had lost 600 sailors and many hundreds more badly wounded, and 1 Spanish ship was sunk, 2 driven ashore, and the rest severely damaged. The wind then blew the Spanish towards the treacherous sound banks of Flanders, where San Lorenzo ran aground at Calais and was taken by the English after fighting Don Hugo de Moncada's crew; San Mateo and San Felipe ran aground on Walcheren a day later and were plundered by the Dutch.

North Sea disaster
The Spanish fleet was blown away into the North Sea, saving it from destruction, but diverting it from the troops in Flanders. Drake and Howard celebrated their victory, while Queen Elizabeth I of England addressed the troops at Tilbury and promised to fight to the death if the Spanish came to land on English soil. However, this was not to be, as the Spanish fleet had sailed up the English coast, harried along the way by English ships. As the Channel was blocked off, the Armada decided to circle around Scotland and Ireland and retreat back to Spain. By the time the fleet arrived in Ireland, many soldiers were dying of thirst and hunger, as they had run out of supplies. Many of the surviving ships were caught in fierce storms off the west coast of Ireland, and dozens of Spanish ships were wrecked and 5,000 drowned or robbed and butchered by Irish locals or English soldiers when they reached the shore. Only the Spanish nobles were spared, kept prisoner for ransom. Medina Sidonia came close to dying of dysentery, while his second-in-command died of shame only days after arriving home. The Armada returned with only 67 ships and 10,000 soldiers in a national tragedy for the Spanish. The English soldiers fared little better, however, as typhus spread fast aboard the English vessels; many English troops were left on their ships so that they would not have to be paid. Large numbers of English sailors died of disease or hunger, and, of the few who did survive, some died even after landing at Margate. Lord Howard paid his soldiers as best he could with his silver, but, by 1589, only half of the Royal Navy sailors had survived. The defeat of the Armada had become a turning point in the Anglo-Spanish War, becoming a naval legend; England remained a Protestant state for centuries, and England would eventually surpass Spain as one of Europe's main powers.